From the webcasts I have watched these past two weeks, I think I remember maybe four times that I could actually identify a team from the color of their LED’s. Im happy that we have them, since they’re a lot easier to mount, and there is no problem with finding a place for the light that is visible from 4 sides, but this has to be an issue for people in the audience watching.
Is it just the webcasts, or is it really this hard to see the LED’s?
Cory
The LEDs are obviously harder to see than the big heavy police lights, although I was able to see them well enough from the stands. I think it would help if their blinking pattern was such that they stayed lit more instead of blinking on and off so infrequently. Once I got used to what teams’ robots looked like, I didn’t need the lights anyway. They sure do make it easier to make weight!
Yeah it is a little difficult to see them from the audience. I think it would help if they blinked faster because it’s hard to scan the field quickly to get a feel for who is winning when you have to wait for each robot to blink. Then after the match it’s even harder because there is a long delay between blinks.
I think they should swap the auto mode blink with the normal mode blink. In auto mode they blink much faster and it makes it easier to see who is who.
Though the LEDs are useful for other things. 60 was having problems with losing control of their arm when they tried folding it in so they could hang. Someone took a video of the match and it was clear that their LED stopped blinking, then blinked 4 times quickly in the last 5 seconds of the match. According to Tony from IFI that means they lost radio communication.
I don’t know if it was just me or an IFI problem at the PNW regional. However at the conclusion of the match, it seemed that some times the robot’s lights stayed on, which made scoring from an audience member perspective much easier. Or, they were turned off, which made final scoring much harder.
Was that just me not seeing the LED’s or is that an IFI thing?